What is the oldest watch you carry?

[peg leg]

I've got to brag on my watchmaker a bit, I have had this Waltham running 24/7 for over a year since I had it serviced. About every three months I have to adjust by no more than a couple of minutes. This watch is a Waltham AT&Co grade from 1864. Oliver Mundy inspired me to carry an English lever from 1842 that times well also.

http://static.flickr.com/65/160032704_f4f22d0154.jpg

Not all watches have to be railroad grade to keep good time..........Keith R...

[peg leg]

I've got to brag on my watchmaker a bit, I have had this Waltham running 24/7 for over a year since I had it serviced. About every three months I have to adjust by no more than a couple of minutes. This watch is a Waltham AT&Co grade from 1864. Oliver Mundy inspired me to carry an English lever from 1842 that times well also.

http://static.flickr.com/65/160032704_f4f22d0154.jpg

Not all watches have to be railroad grade to keep good time..........Keith R...

[Andy Dervan]

Hello Keith,

I have a 17 jewel 16-size open face Waltham probably from about 1915, and I have been carrying it everyday for almost a year and half. Every few weeks I check and it needs a small adjustment +/- a couple of minutes.

American pocket watches are amazingly accurate for mechanical timepieces. I bought it at local Chapter meeting for $ 50, and I had friend work on. It cost $ 100 for repair, because it needed a new crystal.

Andy Dervan

[kenknox]

I have carried this watch for the past few weeks when I,m not doing anything to adventurous. I just went through it with a cleaning and oiling and its in pretty good shape gaining a minute or two a day.
Not sure exactly of its date or origins but its a verge fusee with Swiss hallmarks inside the case but the works looks to be french.

Kennyhttp://static.flickr.com/47/161340312_b1262f7b32.jpg http://static.flickr.com/49/161340311_b1429611ed.jpg

[Oliver Mundy]

Kenny's verge looks to me like Swiss work of about 1820-30. 'A minute or two a day' is exceptionally good going for a late verge; 19th-century examples often perform less well today than earlier ones, since the escapement parts are much smaller than they had previously been (because of attempts to keep up with the fashion for thin-calibre movements), so that a small amount of wear has a much more critical effect.

I have used an 1865 Waltham 57 (11-jewel Bartlett) as a bread-and-butter watch for more than two years; not as fine a specimen as Pegleg's, but a tough old bird which has twice survived being dropped and is now running happily with an English mainspring dating from the 1840s. (Incidentally, would the compensated balance and unusual regulator on Pegleg's watch be original?) Occasionally I give an outing to an English cylinder watch made in 1779 or 1780; it will keep time within two minutes a day as long as the cylinder (not a ruby) is kept well charged with oil.

Oliver Mundy.

[peg leg]

Andy 17j watches are great time keepers!

Kenny, nice verge with through dial wind (amazing to see one with no dial damage around key hole). And two minutes a day on a verge I'd be happy too.

Oliver, to quote Jerry M. from this board "spot on". The regulator on the 1864 Waltham is an add on Teske/Tucker design from 1870's on a 15 jewel model 57. I also have an 11j Bartlett (1866) that can be a work horse. The compensated ballance is original to the watch.

Great examples guys!

Keith R...

[M. Cross]

The oldest one I wear on a fairly regular basis is an 18s 1899 Elgin model 228 hunter 17j that Ed Uberall overhauled for me last year. It rarely if EVER requires adjustment for time, and that's pretty tight for a non-adjusted non-railroad movement watch! :eek:

Regards! Mark